/,J  . } 


n& 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO 


presented  to  the 
UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SAN  DIEGO 

by 


Howard  L.   Chernoff 


\  I 

a  VN- 


ALTEMUS' 
ETERNAL  LIFE  SERIES. 

Selections  from  the  writings  of  well-known  religious  authors' 
works,  beautifully  printed  and  daintily  bound  in  leatherette 
with  triginal  designs  in  silver  and  ink. 

PRICE.  25  CENTS  PER  VOLUME. 


ETERNAL  LIFE,  by  Professor  Henry  Drummond. 
LORD,  TEACH  US  TO  PRAY,  by  Rev.  Andrew  Murray. 
GOD'S  WORD  AND  GOD'S  WORK,  by  Martin  Luther. 
FAITH,  by  Thomas  Arnold. 
THE  CREATION   STORY,  by  Honorable  William  E. 

Gladstone. 
THE  MESSAGE  OF  COMFORT,  by  Rt.  Rev.  Ashton 

THE  MESSAGE  OF  PEACE,  by  Rev.  R.  W.  Church. 
THE    LORD'S    PRAYER    AND    THE    TEN    COM- 
MANDMENTS, by  Dean  Stanley. 
THE  MEMOIRS  OF  JESUS,  by  Rev.  Robert  F.  Horton. 
HYMNS  OF  PRAISE  AND  GLADNESS,  by  Elisabeth 

R.  Scovil. 

DIFFICULTIES,  by  Hannah  Whitall  Smith. 
GAMBLERS  AND  GAMBLING,  by  Rev.  Henry  Ward 

Beech  er. 

HAVE  FAITH  IN  GOD,  by  Rev.  Andrew  Murray. 
TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY,  by  Rev.  Henry 

Ward  Beecher. 
THE  CHRIST  IN  WHOM  CHRISTIANS  BELIEVE, 

by  Rt.  Rev.  Phillips  Brooks. 
IN  MY  NAME,  by  Rev.  Andrew  Murray. 
SIX  WARNINGS,  by  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 
THE  DUTY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  BUSINESS  MAN, 

by  Rt.  Rev.  Phillips  Brooks. 
POPULAR    AMUSEMENTS,   by    Rev.    Henry   Ward 

Beecher. 

TRUE  LIBERTY,  by  Rt.  Rev.  Phillips  Brooks. 
INDUSTRY  AND    IDLENESS,  by  Rev.  Henry  Ward 

THE   BEAUTY   OF   A   LIFE    OF    SERVICE,  by  Rt. 

Rev.  Phillips  Brooks. 
THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  OUR  LORD,  by  Rev.  A. 

T.  Pierson.D.D. 

THOUGHT  AND  ACTION,  by  Rt.  Rev.  Phillips  Brooks. 
THE  HEAVENLY  VISION,  by  Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer. 
MORNING  STRENGTH,  by  Elisabeth  R.  Scovil. 
FOR  THE  QUIET  HOUR,  by  Edith  V.  Bradt. 
EVENING  COMFORT,  by  Elisabeth  R.  Scovil. 
WORDS   OF   HELP    FOR   CHRISTIAN  GIRLS,  by 

Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer. 
HOW  TO   STUDY  THE  BIBLE,  by  Rev.  Dwight  L. 

Moody. 

EXPECTATION  CORNER,  by  E-  S.  Elliot. 
JESSICA'S  FIRST  PRAYER,  by  Hesba  Stretton. 


HENRY  ALTEMUS, 
507,  500,  511,  513  Cherry  Street,  Philadelphia. 


HENRY  WARD   BEECHER. 


Twelve  Causes 

of 

Dishonesty 

By  Rev.  Henry 

0  Ward 

Beecher 


Philadelphia 
Henry  Altemus 


COPYRIGHTED    1896     ' 

BY  HENRY  ALTEMUS 


HENRY  AI.TBMUS.  MANUFACTURER 
PHILADBLPH1A 


TWELVE    CAUSES    OF 
DISHONESTY 

ONLY  extraordinary  circumstances  can 
give  the  appearance  of  dishonesty  to 
an  honest  man.  Usually,  not  to  seem 
honest,  is  not  to  be  so.  The  quality  must 
not  be  doubtful  like  twilight,  lingering 
between  night  and  day  and  taking  hues  from 
both;  it  must  be  day-light,  clear, and  efful- 
gent. This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible  : 
Providing  for  honest  tilings,  not  only  in  the 
siglitof  the  Lord,  BUT  ALSO  IN  THE  SIGHT  OF 
MEN.  In  general  it  may  be  said  that  no  one 
has  honesty  without  dross,  until  he  has 
honesty  without  suspicion. 

We  are  passing  through  times  upon 
which  the  seeds  of  dishonesty  have  been 
sown  broadcast,  and  they  have  brought  forth 
a  hundred-fold.  These  times  will  pass 
away;  but  like  ones  will  come  again.  As 

(3) 


4       TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

physicians  study  the  causes  and  record  the 
phenomena  of  plagues  and  pestilences,  to 
draw  from  them  an  antidote  against  their 
recurrence,  so  should  we  leave  to  another 
generation  a  history  of  moral  plagues,  as  the 
best  antidote  to  their  recurring  malignity. 

Upon  a  land, — capacious  beyond  measure, 
whose  prodigal  soil  rewards  labor  with  an 
unharvestable  abundance  of  exuberant 
fruits,  occupied  by  a  people  signalized  by 
enterprise  and  industry, — there  came  a  sum- 
mer of  prosperity  which  lingered  so  long 
and  shone  so  brightly,  that  men  forgot  that 
winter  could  ever  come.  Each  day  grew 
brighter.  No  reins  were  put  upon  the 
imagination.  Its  dreams  passed  for  realities. 
Even  sober  men,  touched  with  wildness, 
seemed  to  expect  a  realization  of  oriental 
tales.  Upon  this  bright  day  came  sudden 
frosts,  storms,  and  blight.  Men  awoke  from 
gorgeous  dreams  in  the  midst  of  desolation. 
The  harvests  of  years  were  swept  away  in 
a  day.  The  strongest  firms  were  rent  as 
easily  as  the  oak  by  lightning.  Speculating 
companies  were  dispersed  as  seared  leaves 
from  a  tree  in  autumn.  Merchants  were 
ruined  by  thousands ;  clerks  turned  adrift 
by  ten  thousands.  Mechanics  were  left 
in  idleness.  Farmers  sighed  over  flocks 
and  wheat  as  useless  as  the  stones  and  dirt. 
The  wide  sea  of  commerc£  was  stagnant; 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY      § 

upon  the  realm  of  Industry  settled  down  a 
sullen  lethargy. 

Out  of  this  reverse  swarmed  an  unnum- 
bered host  of  dishonest  men,  like  vermin 
from  a  carcass.  Banks  were  exploded, — or 
robbed, — or  fleeced  by  astounding  forgeries. 
Mighty  companies,  without  cohesion,  went 
to  pieces,  and  hordes  of  wretches  snatched 
up  every  bale  that  came  ashore.  Cities 
were  ransacked  by  troops  of  villains.  The 
unparalleled  frauds,  which  sprung  like 
mines  on  every  hand,  set  every  man  to 
trembling  lest  the  next  explosion  should  be 
under  his  own  feet.  Fidelity  seemed  to 
have  forsaken  men.  Many  that  had  earned 
a  reputation  for  sterling  honesty  were  cast 
so  suddenly  headlong  into  wickedness,  that 
man  shrank  from  man.  Suspicion  overgrew 
confidence,  and  the  heart  bristled  with  the 
nettles  and  thorns  of  fear  and  jealousy. 
Then  had  almost  come  to  pass  the  divine 
delineation  of  ancient  wickedness :  The  good 
man  is  perished  out  of  the  earth:  and  there  is 
none  upright  among  men :  they  all  lie  in  wait 
for  blood ;  they  hunt  every  man  his  brother 
with  a  net.  That  they  may  do  evil  with 
both  hands  earnestly,  the  prince  and  the  judge 
ask  for  a  reward:  and  the  great  man  utter- 
eth  his  mischievous  desire  ;  so  they  wrap  it 
up.  The  best  of  them  is  a  brier  ;  the  most 
upright  is  sharper  than  a  thorn  hedge.  The 


6       TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

world  looked  upon  a  continent  of  inex- 
haustible fertility,  (whose  harvest  had 
glutted  the  markets,  and  rotted  in  disuse,) 
filled  with  lamentation,  and  its  inhabitants 
wandering  like  bereaved  citizens  among  the 
ruins  of  an  earthquake,  mourning  for  chil- 
dren, for  houses  crushed,  and  property 
buried  forever. 

That  no  measure  might  be  put  to  the 
calamity,  the  Church  of  God,  which  rises  a 
stately  tower  of  refuge  to  desponding  men, 
seemed  now  to  have  lost  its  power  of  pro- 
tection. When  the  solemn  voice  of  Re- 
ligion should  have  gone  over  the  land,  as 
the  call  of  God  to  guilty  man  to  seek  in 
him  their  strength ;  in  this  time  when  Re- 
ligion should  have  restored  sight  to  the 
blind,  made  the  lame  to  walk,  and  bound 
up  the  broken-hearted,  she  was  herself 
mourning  in  sackcloth.  Out  of  her  courts 
came  the  noise  of  warring  sects  ;  some  con- 
tending against  others  with  bitter  warfare; 
and  some,  possessed  of  a  demon,  wallowed 
upon  the  ground  foaming  and  rending 
themselves.  In  a  time  of  panic,  and  disas- 
ter, and  distress,  and  crime,  the  fountain 
which  should  have  been  for  the  healing  of 
men,  cast  up  its  sediments,  and  gave  out 
a  bitter  stream  of  pollution. 

In  every  age,  an  universal  pestilence  has 
hushed  the  clamor  of  contention,  and  cooled 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY      7 

the  heats  of  parties ;  but  the  greatness  of 
our  national  calamity  seemed  only  to  en- 
kindle the  fury  of  political  parties.  Con- 
tentions never  ran  with  such  deep  streams 
and  impetuous  currents,  as  amidst  the  ruin 
of  our  industry  and  prosperity.  States 
were  greater  debtors  to  foreign  nations,  than 
their  citizens  were  to  each  other.  Both 
states  and  citizens  shrunk  back  from  their 
debts,  and  yet  more  dishonestly  from  the 
taxes  necessary  to  discharge  them.  The 
General  Government  did  not  escape,  but 
lay  becalmed,  or  pursued  its  course,  like  a 
ship,  at  every  furlong  touching  the  rocks, 
or  beating  against  the  sands.  The  Capitol 
trembled  with  the  first  waves  of  a  question 
which  is  yet  to  shake  the  whole  land.  New 
questions  of  exciting  qualities  perplexed 
the  realm  of  legislation,  and  of  morals.  To 
all  this  must  be  added  a  manifest  decline 
of  family  government ;  an  increase 
of  the  ratio  of  popular  ignorance ;  a  de- 
crease of  reverence  for  law,  and  an  effemi- 
nate administration  of  it.  Popular  tumults 
have  been  as  frequent  as  freshets  in  our 
rivers  ;  and  like  them,  have  swept  over  the 
land  with  desolation,  and  left  their  filthy 
slime  in  the  highest  places : — upon  the 
press  ; — upon  the  legislature  ; — in  the  halls 
of  our  courts  ; — and  even  upon  the  sacred 
bench  of  Justice.  If  unsettled  times  foster 


8       TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

dishonesty,  it  should  have  flourished  among 
us.     And  it  has. 

Our  nation  must  expect  a  periodical  re- 
turn of  such  convulsions ;  but  experience 
should  steadily  curtail  their  ravages,  and 
remedy  their  immoral  tendencies.  Young 
men  have  before  them  lessons  of  manifold 
wisdom  taught  by  the  severest  of  masters — 
experience.  They  should  be  studied  ;  and 
that  they  may  be,  I  shall,  from  this  general 
survey,  turn  to  a  specific  enumeration  of 
the  causes  of  dishonesty. 

1.  Some  men  find  in  their  bosom  from 
the  first,  a  vehement  inclination  to  dishon- 
est ways.     Knavish    propensities    are    in- 
herent: born  with  the  child  and  transmissi- 
ble from  parent  to  son.     The  children  of  a 
sturdy  thief,  if  taken  from  him  at  birth  and 
reared  by  honest   men,  would,    doubtless, 
have  to  contend  against  a  strongly  dishon- 
est inclination.     Foundlings  and    orphans 
under  public  charitable  charge,  are   more 
apt  to  become  vicious  than   other  children. 
They  are  usually  born  of  low  and  vicious 
parents,  and  inherit  their  parents'  propen- 
sities.    Only    the    most    thorough    moral 
training  can    overrule  this  innate  deprav- 
ity. 

2.  A  child    naturally   fair-minded,   may 
become  dishonest  by  parental  example.  He 
is  early  taught  to  be  sharp  in  bargains,  and 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY      g 

vigilant  for  every  advantage.  Little  is  said 
about  honesty,  and  much  upon  shrewd 
traffic.  A  dexterous  trick,  becomes  a 
family  anecdote ;  visitors  are  regaled  with 
the  boy's  precocious  keenness.  Hearing 
the  praise  of  his  exploits,  he  studies  craft, 
and  seeks  parental  admiration  by  adroit 
knaveries.  He  is  taught,  for  his  safety, 
that  he  must  not  range  beyond  the  law: 
that  would  be  unprofitable.  He  calculates 
his  morality  thus  :  Legal  honesty  is  the  best 
policy, — dishonesty,  then,  is  a  bad  bargain 
— and  therefore  wrong — everything  is 
wrong  which  is  unthrifty.  Whatever  profit 
breaks  no  legal  statute — though  it  is  gained 
by  falsehood,  by  unfairness,  by  gloss ; 
through  dishonor,  unkindness,  and  an  un- 
scrupulous conscience — he  considers  fair, 
and  says :  The  law  allows  it.  Men  may 
spend  a  long  life  without  an  indictable 
action,  and  without  an  honest  one.  No 
law  can  reach  the  insidious  ways  of  subtle 
craft.  The  law  allows,  and  religion  forbids 
men,  to  profit  by  others'  misfortunes,  to 
prowl  for  prey  among  the  ignorant,  to  over- 
reach the  simple,  to  suck  the  last  life-drops 
from  the  bleeding ;  to  hover  over  men  as  a 
vulture  over  herds,  swooping  down  upon 
the  weak,  the  straggling,  and  the  weary. 
The  infernal  craft  of  cunning  men,  turns  the 
law  itself  to  piracy,  and  works  outrageous 


IO     TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

fraud  in  the  hall  of  Courts,  by  the  decision 
of  judges,  and  under  the  seal  of  Justice. 

3.  Dishonesty  is  learned  from   one's  em- 
ployers.    The  boy  of  honest  parents   and 
honestly  bred,  goes  to  a  trade,  or  a  store, 
where  the  employer  practises  legal  frauds. 
The  plain  honesty  of  the  boy  excites  roars 
of  laughter  among  the  better  taught  clerks. 
,The  master  tells  them  that  such  blundering 
truthfulness    must   be  pitied ;  the  boy  evi- 
dently has  been  neglected,  and  is  not  to  be 
ridiculed  for  what  he  could  not  help.     At 
first,  it   verily  pains  the   youth's    scruples, 
and  tinges  his  face   to  frame  a   deliberate 
dishonesty,  to  finish,  and  to  polish  it.     His 
tongue  stammers  at  a  lie ;  but  the  example 
of  a   rich    master,  the  jeers  and   gibes   of 
shopmates,  with   gradual  practice,  cure  all 
this.     He  becomes  adroit  in  fleecing  custo- 
mers  for   his   master's    sake,  and   equally 
dexterous  in  fleecing  his  master  for  his  own 
sake. 

4.  EXTRAVAGANCE  is  a  prolific  source  of 
dishonesty.     Extravagance, — which  is  fool- 
ish expense,  or  expense  disproportionate  to 
one's  means, — may  be  found  in  all   grades 
of  society ;  but  it  is  chiefly  apparent  among 
the  rich,  those  aspiring  to  wealth,  and  those 
wishing   to   be   thought  affluent.     Many  a 
young  man  cheats  his   business,  by  trans- 
ferring his  means  to  theatres,  race-courses, 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 


II 


expensive  parties,  and  to  the  nameless  and 
numberless  projects  of  pleasure.  The  en- 
terprise of  others  is  baffled  by  the  extrava- 
gance of  their  family ;  for  few  men  can 
make  as  much  in  a  year  as  an  extravagant 
woman  can  carry  on  her  back  in  one  winter. 
Some  are  ambitious  of  fashionable  society, 
and  will  gratify  their  vanity  at  any  expense. 
This  disproportion  between  means  and 
expense  soon  brings  on  a  crisis.  The 
victim  is  straitened  for  money ;  without  it 
he  must  abandon  his  rank ;  for  fashionable 
society  remorselessly  rejects  all  butterflies 
which  have  lost  their  brilliant  colors. 
Which  shall  he  choose,  honesty  and  morti- 
fying exclusion,  or  gaiety  purchased  by 
dishonesty  ?  The  severity  of  this  choice 
sometimes  sobers  the  intoxicated  brain ; 
and  a  young  man  shrinks  from  the  gulf, 
appalled  at  the  darkness  of  dishonesty. 
But  to  excessive  vanity,  high-life  with  or 
without  fraud,  is  Paradise ;  and  any  other 
life  Purgatory.  Here  many  resort  to  dis- 
honesty without  a  scruple.  It  is  at  this 
point  that  public  sentiment  half  sustains 
dishonesty.  It  scourges  the  thief  of  Neces- 
sity, and  pities  the  thief  of  Fashion. 

The  struggle  with  others  is  on  the  very 
ground  of  honor.  A  wife  led  from  affluence 
to  frigid  penury  and  neglect ;  from  leisure 
and  luxury  to  toil  and  want;  daughters, 


12     TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

once  courted  as  rich,  to  be  disesteemed 
when  poor, — this  is  the  gloomy  prospect, 
seen  through  a  magic  haze  of  despondency. 
Honor,  love  and  generosity,  strangely  be- 
witched, plead  for  dishonesty  as  the  only 
alternative  to  such  suffering.  But  go, 
young  man,  to  your  wife ;  tell  her  the  alter- 
native; if  she  is  worthy  of  you,  she  will 
face  your  poverty  with  a  courage  which 
shall  shame  your  fears,  and  lead  you  into 
its  wilderness  and  through  it,  all  unshrink- 
ing. Many  there  be  who  went  weeping 
into  this  desert,  and  ere  long,  having  found 
in  it  the  fountains  of  the  purest  peace,  have 
thanked  God  for  the  pleasures  of  poverty. 
But  if  your  wife  unmans  your  resolution, 
imploring  dishonor  rather  than  penury, 
may  God  pity  and  help  you !  You  dwell 
with  a  sorceress,  and  few  can  resist  her 
wiles. 

5.  DEBT  is  an  inexhaustible  fountain  of 
Dishonesty.  The  Royal  Preacher  tells  us  : 
The  borrower  is  servant  to  the  lender.  Debt 
is  a  rigorous  servitude.  The  debtor  learns 
the  cunning  tricks,  delays,  concealments, 
and  frauds,  by  which  slaves  evade  or  cheat 
their  master.  He  is  tempted  to  make 
ambiguous  statements  ;  pledges,  with  secret 
passages  of  escape  ;  contracts,  with  fraudu- 
lent constructions;  lying  excuses,  and 
more  mendacious  promises.  He  is  tempted 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY    „ 

to  elude  responsibility;  to  delay  settle- 
ments ;  to  prevaricate  upon  the  terms ;  to 
resist  equity,  and  devise  specious  fraud. 
When  the  eager  creditor  would  restrain 
such  vagrancy  by  law,  the  debtor  then 
thinks  himself  released  from  moral  obliga- 
tion, and  brought  to  a  legal  game,  in  which 
it  is  lawful  for  the  best  player  to  win.  He 
disputes  true  accounts;  he  studies  subter- 
fuges ;  extorts  provocations  delays ;  and 
harbors  in  every  nook,  and  corner,  and 
passage,  of  the  law's  labyrinth.  At  length 
the  measure  is  filled  up,  and  the  malignant 
power  of  debt  is  known.  It  has  opened  in 
the  heart  every  fountain  of  iniquity ;  it  has 
besoiled  the  conscience ;  it  has  tarnished 
the  honor ;  it  has  made  the  man  a  deliber- 
ate student  of  knavery;  a  systematic  practi- 
tioner of  fraud:  it  has  dragged  him  through 
all  the  sewers  of  petty  passions, — anger, 
hate,  revenge,  malicious  folly,  or  malignant 
shame.  When  a  debtor  is  beaten  at  every 
point,  and  the  law  will  put  her  screws 
upon  him,  there  is  no  depth  in  the  gulf  of 
dishonesty  into  which  he  will  not  boldly 
plunge.  Some  men  put  their  property  to 
the  flames,  assassinate  the  detested  creditor, 
and  end  the  frantic  tragedy  by  suicide,  or 
the  gallows.  Others,  in  view  of  the  catas- 
trophe, have  converted  all  property  to  cash, 
and  concealed  it.  The  law's  utmost  skill, 


!4     TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

and  the  creditor's  fury,  are  alike  powerless 
now, — the  tree-  is  green  and  thrifty ;  its 
roots  drawing  a  copious  supply  from  some 
hidden  fountain. 

Craft  has  another  harbor  of  resort  for  the 
piratical  crew  of  dishonesty;  viz. :  putting 
the  property  out  of  the  law's  reach  by  a 
fraudulent  conveyance.  Whoever  runs  in 
debt,  and  consumes  the  equivalent  of  his 
indebtedness ;  whoever  is  fairly  liable  to 
damage  for  broken  contracts  ;  whoever  by 
folly,  has  incurred  debts  and  lost  the  bene- 
fit of  his  outlay  ;  whoever  is  legally  obliged 
to  pay  for  his  malice  or  carelessness  ;  who- 
ever by  infidelity  to  public  trusts  has  made 
his  property  a  just  remuneration  for  his 
defaults ; — whoever  of  all  these,  or  who- 
ever, under  any  circumstances,  puts  out  of 
his  hands  property,  morally  or  legally  due 
to  creditors,  is  A  DISHONEST  MAN.  The 
crazy  excuses  which  men  render  to  their 
consciences,  are  only  such  as  every  villain 
makes,  who  is  unwilling  to  look  upon  the 
black  face  of  his  crimes. 

He  who  will  receive  a  conveyance  of  prop- 
erty, knowing  it  to  be  illusive  and  fraudu- 
lent, is  as  wicked  as  the  principal ;  and  as 
much  meaner,  as  the  tool  and  subordinate 
of  villany  is  meaner  than  the  master  who 
uses  him. 

If  a  church,  knowing  all  these  facts,  or 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY     jr 

wilfully  ignorant  of  them,  allows  a  member 
to  nestle  in  the  security  of  the  sanctuary ; 
then  the  act  of  this  robber,  and  the  conniv- 
ance of  the  church,  are  but  the  two  parts  of 
one  crime. 

6.  BANKRUPTCY,  although  a  branch  of 
debt,  deserves  a  separate  mention.  It  some- 
times crushes  a  man's  spirit,  and  sometimes 
exasperates  it.  The  poignancy  of  the  evil 
depends  much  upon  the  disposition  of  the 
creditors ;  and  as  much  upon  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  victim.  Should  they  act  with 
the  lenity  of  Christian  men,  and  he  with 
manly  honesty,  promptly  rendering  up  what- 
ever satisfaction  of  debt  he  has, — he  may 
visit  the  lowest  places  of  human  adversity, 
and  find  there  the  light  of  good  men's  es- 
teem, the  support  of  conscience,  and  the 
sustenance  of  religion. 

A  bankrupt  may  fall  into  the  hands  of 
men  whose  tender-mercies  are  cruel ;  or  his 
dishonest  equivocations  may  exasperate 
their  temper  and  provoke  every  thorn  and 
brier  of  the  law.  When  men's  passions  are 
let  loose,  especially  their  avarice  whetted 
by  real  or  imaginary  wrong;  when  there  is 
a  rivalry  among  creditors,  lest  any  one 
should  feast  upon  the  victim  more  than  his 
share;  and  they  all  rush  upon  him  like 
wolves  upon  a  wounded  deer,  dragging  him 
down,  ripping  him  open,  breast  and  flank, 


1 6     TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

plunging  deep  their  bloody  muzzles  to  reach 
the  heart  and  taste  blood  at  the  very  foun- 
tain ; — is  it  strange  that  resistance  is  desper- 
ate and  unscrupulous?  At  length  the  suf- 
ferer drags  his  mutilated  carcass  aside,  every 
nerve  and  muscle  wrung  with  pain,  and  his 
whole  body  an  instrument  of  agony.  He 
curses  the  whole  inhuman  crew  with  en- 
venomed imprecations ;  and  thenceforth,  a 
brooding  misanthrope,  he  pays  back  to  so- 
ciety, by  studied  villanies,  the  legal  wrongs 
which  the  relentless  justice  of  a  few,  or  his 
own  knavery,  have  brought  upon  him. 

7.  There  is  a  circle  of  moral  dishonesties 
practised  because  the  LAW  allows  them. 
The  very  anxiety  of  law  to  reach  the  de- 
vices of  cunning,  so  perplexes  its  statutes 
with  exceptions,  limitations,  and  supple- 
ments, that  like  a  castle  gradually  enlarged 
for  centuries,  it  has  its  crevices,  dark  cor- 
ners, secret  holes  and  winding  passages — 
an  endless  harbor  for  rats  and  vermin,  where 
no  trap  can  catch  them.  We  are  villa- 
nously  infested  with  legal  rats  and  rascals, 
who  are  able  to  commit  the  most  flagrant 
dishonesties  with  impunity.  They  can  do 
all  of  wrong  which  is  profitable,  without 
that  part  which  is  actionable.  The  very 
ingenuity  of  these  miscreants  excites  such 
admiration  of  their  skill,  that  their  life  is 
gilded  with  a  specious  respectability.  Men 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY     j- 

profess  little  esteem  for  blunt,  necessitous 
thieves,  who  rob  and  run  away;  but  for  a 
gentleman  who  can  break  the  whole  of 
God's  law  so  adroitly,  as  to  leave  man's  law 
unbroken ;  who  can  indulge  in  such  con- 
servative stealing  that  his  fellow-men  award 
him  a  rank  among  honest  men  for  the  ex- 
cessive skill  of  his  dishonesty — for  such  a 
one,  I  fear,  there  is  almost  universal  sym- 
pathy. 

8.  POLITICAL  DISHONESTY,  breeds  dis- 
honesty of  every  kind.  It  is  possible  for 
good  men  to  permit  single  sins  to  co-exist 
with  general  integrity,  where  the  evil  is  in- 
dulged through  ignorance.  Once,  un- 
doubted Christians  were  slave-traders.  They 
might  be,  while  unenlightened;  but  not  in 
our  times.  A  state  of  mind  which  will  in- 
tend one  fraud,  will,  upon  occasions,  intend 
a  thousand.  He  that  upon  one  emergency 
will  lie,  will  be  supplied  with  emergencies. 
He  that  will  perjure  himself  to  save  a  friend, 
will  do  it,  in  a  desperate  juncture,  to  save 
himself.  The  highest  Wisdom  has  informed 
us  that  He  tJiat  is  unjust  in  the  least,  is  un- 
just also  in  much.  Ci rcumstances  may  with- 
draw a  politician  from  temptation  to  any 
but  political  dishonesty  ;  but  under  temp- 
tation, a  dishonest  politician  would  be  a 
dishonest  cashier, — would  be  dishonest 
anywhere, — in  anything.  The  fury  which 


l8     TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

destroys  an  opponent's  character,  would 
stop  at  nothing,  if  barriers  were  thrown 
down.  That  which  is  true  of  the  leaders 
in  politics,  is  true  of  subordinates.  Politi- 
cal dishonesty  in  voters  runs  into  general  dis- 
honesty, as  the  rotten  speck  taints  the 
whole  apple.  A  community  whose  politics 
are  conducted  by  a  perpetual  breach  of 
honesty  on  both  sides,  will  be  tainted  by 
immorality  throughout.  Men  will  play  the 
same  game  in  their  private  affairs,  which 
they  have  learned  to  play  in  public  matters. 
The  guile,  the  crafty  vigilance,  the  dishon- 
est advantage,  the  cunning  sharpness; — the 
tricks  and  traps  and  sly  evasions;  the  equiv- 
ocal promises,  and  unequivocal  neglect  of 
them,  which  characterize  political  action, 
will  equally  characterize  private  action. 
The  mind  has  no  kitchen  to  do  its 
dirty  work  in,  while  the  parlor  remains 
clean.  Dishonesty  is  an  atmosphere ;  if  it 
comes  into  one  apartment,  it  penetrates  into 
every  one.  Whoever  will  lie  in  politics, 
will  lie  in  traffic.  Whoever  will  slander  in 
politics,  will  slander  in  personal  squabbles. 
A  professor  of  religion  who  is  a  dishonest 
politician,  is  a  dishonest  Christian.  His 
creed  is  a  perpetual  index  of  his  hypocrisy. 
The  genius  of  our  government  directs 
the  attention  of  every  citizen  to  politics. 
Its  spirit  reaches  the  uttermost  bound  of 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY    Tg 

society,  and  pervades  the  whole  mass.  If 
its  channels  are  slimy  with  corruption,  what 
limit  can  be  set  to  its  malign  influence? 
The  turbulence  of  elections,  the  virulence 
of  the  press,  the  desperation  of  bad  men, 
the  hopelessness  of  efforts  which  are  not 
cunning,  but  only  honest,  have  driven  many 
conscientious  men  from  any  concern 
with  politics.  This  is  suicidal.  Thus  the 
tempest  will  grow  blacker  and  fiercer.  Our 
youth  will  be  caught  up  in  its  whirling  bos- 
om and  dashed  to  pieces,  and  its  hail  will 
break  down  every  green  thing.  At  God's 
house  the  cure  should  begin.  Let  the 
hand  of  discipline  smite  the  leprous  lips 
which  shall  utter  the  profane  heresy:  All 
is  fair  in  politics.  If  any  hoary  professor, 
drunk  with  the  mingled  wine  of  excite- 
ment, shall  tell  our  youth,  that  a  Christian 
man  may  act  in  politics  by  any  other  rule 
of  morality  than  that  of  the  Bible ;  and 
that  wickedness  performed  for  a  party,  is 
not  as  abominable,  as  if  done  for  a  man  ;  or 
that  any  necessity  justifies  or  palliates  dis- 
honesty in  word  or  deed, — let  such  a  one 
go  out  of  the  camp,  and  his  pestilent  breath 
no  longer  spread  contagion  among  our 
youth.  No  man  who  loves  his  country, 
should  shrink  from  her  side  when  she 
groans  with  raging  distempers.  Let  every 
Christian  man  stand  in  his  place;  rebuke 


20    TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

every  dishonest  practice ;  scorn  a  political 
as  well  as  a  personal  lie ;  and  refuse  with 
indignation  to  be  insulted  by  the  solicitation 
of  an  immoral  man.  Let  good  men  of  all 
parties  require  honesty,  integrity,  veracity, 
and  morality  in  politics,  and  there,  as  pow- 
erfully as  anywhere  else,  the  requisitions  of 
public  sentiment  will  ultimately  be  felt. 

9.  A  corrupt  PUBLIC  SENTIMENT  produces 
dishonesty.  A  public  sentiment,  in  which 
dishonesty  is  not  disgraceful ;  in  which  bad 
men  are  respectable,  are  trusted,  are  hon- 
ored, are  exalted — is  a  curse  to  the  young. 
The  fever  of  speculation,  the  universal  de- 
rangement of  business,  the  growing  laxness 
of  morals,  is,  to  an  alarming  extent,  intro- 
ducing such  a  state  of  things.  Men  of  no- 
torious immorality,  whose  dishonesty  is 
flagrant,  whose  private  habits  would  dis- 
grace the  ditch,  are  powerful  and  popular. 
I  have  seen  a  man  stained  with  every  sin, 
except  those  which  required  courage  ;  into 
whose  head  I  do  not  think  a  pure  thought 
has  entered  for  forty  years ;  in  whose  heart 
an  honorable  feeling  would  droop  for  very 
loneliness  ; — in  evil  he  was  ripe  and  rotten  ; 
hoary  and  depraved  in  deed,  in  word,  in  his 
present  life  and  in  all  his  past;  evil  when 
by  himself,  and  viler  among  men  ;  corrupting 
to  the  young ; — to  domestic  fidelity,  a  rec- 
reant; to  common  honor,  a  traitor;  to 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY    2I 

honesty,  an  outlaw  ;  to  religion,  a  hypocrite ; 
— base  in  all  that  is  worthy  of  man,  and  ac- 
complished in  whatever  is  disgraceful ;  and 
yet  this  wretch  could  go  where  he  would; 
enter  good  men's  dwellings,  and  purloin 
their  votes.  Men  would  curse  him,  yet  obey 
him;  hate  him  and  assist  him;  warn  their 
sons  against  him,  and  lead  them  to  the  polls 
for  him.  A  public  sentiment  which  produces 
ignominious  knaves,  cannot  breed  honest 
men. 

Any  calamity,  civil  or  commercial,  which 
checks  the  administration  of  justice  between 
man  and  man,  is  ruinous  to  honesty.  The 
violent  fluctuations  of  business  cover  the 
ground  with  rubbish  over  which  men  stum- 
ble; and  fill  the  air  with  dust,  in  which 
all  the  shapes  of  honesty  appear  distorted. 
Men  are  thrown  upon  unusual  expedients; 
dishonesties  are  unobserved ;  those  who 
have  been  reckless  and  profuse,  stave  off 
the  legitimate  fruits  of  their  folly  by  des- 
perate shifts.  We  have  not  yet  emerged  from 
a  period,  in  which  debts  were  insecure; 
the  debtor  legally  protected  against  the 
rights  of  the  creditor;  taxes  laid,  not  by 
the  requirements  of  justice,  but  for  political 
effect;  and  lowered  to  a  dishonest  insuffi- 
ciency ;  and  when  thus  diminished,  not  col- 
lected ;  the  citizens  resisting  their  own  offi- 
cers ;  officers  resigning  at  the  bidding  of 


2  2     TWEL  VE  CA  USES  OF  DISH  ONES  7  Y 

the  electors  ;  the  laws  of  property  paralyzed ; 
bankrupt  laws  built  up  ;  and  stay-laws  un- 
constitutionally enacted,  upon  which  the 
courts  look  with  aversion,  yet  fear  to  deny 
them,  lest  the  wildness  of  popular  opinion 
should  roll  back  disdainfully  upon  the 
bench,  to  despoil  its  dignity,  and  prostrate 
its  power.  General  suffering  has  made  us 
tolerant  of  general  dishonesty ;  and  the 
gloom  of  our  commercial  disaster  threatens 
to  become  the  pall  of  our  morals. 

If  the  shocking  stupidity  of  the  public 
mind  to  atrocious  dishonesties  is  not 
aroused  ;  if  good  men  do  not  bestir  them- 
selves to  drag  the  young  from  this  foul 
sorcery ;  if  the  relaxed  bands  of  honesty 
are  not  tightened,  and  conscience  intoned 
to  a  severer  morality,  our  night  is  at  hand, 
— our  midnight  not  far  off.  Woe  to  that 
guilty  people  who  sit  down  upon  broken 
laws,  and  wealth  saved  by  injustice  !  Woe 
to  a  generation  fed  upon  the  bread  of  fraud, 
whose  children's  inheritance  shall  be  a  per- 
petual memento  of  their  fathers'  unright- 
eousness ;  to  whom  dishonesty  shall  be 
made  pleasant  by  association  with  the  re- 
vered memories  of  father,  brother,  and 
friend ! 

But  when  a  whole  people,  united  by  a 
common  disregard  of  justice,  conspire  to 
defraud  public  creditors ;  and  States  vie 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY     33 

with  States  in  an  infamous  repudiation  of 
just  debts,  by  open  or  sinister  methods j 
and  nations  exert  their  sovereignty  to  protect 
and  dignify  the  knavery  of  a  Common- 
wealth ;  then  the  confusion  of  domestic 
affairs  has  bred  a  fiend,  before  whose  flight 
honor  fades  away,  and  under  whose  feet  the 
sanctity  of  truth  and  the  religion  of  solemn 
compacts  are  stamped  down  and  ground  into 
the  dirt.  Need  we  ask  the  causes  of  grow- 
ing dishonesty  among  the  young,  and  the 
increasing  untrustworthiness  of  all  agents, 
when  States  are  seen  clothed  with  the  pan- 
oply of  dishonesty,  and  nations  put  on 
fraud  for  their  garments  ? 

Absconding  agents,  swindling  schemes, 
and  defalcations,  occurring  in  such  melan- 
choly abundance,  have  at  length  ceased  to 
be  wonders,  and  rank  with  the  common 
accidents  of  fire  and  flood.  The  budget  of 
each  week  is  incomplete  without  its  mob 
and  runaway  cashier — its  duel  and  defaulter; 
and  as  waves  which  roll  to  the  shore  are 
lost  in  those  which  follow  on,  so  the  vil- 
lanies  of  each  week  obliterate  the  record  of 
the  last. 

The  mania  of  dishonesty  cannot  arise 
from  local  causes  ;  it  is  the  result  of  disease 
in  the  whole  community;  an  eruption  be- 
tokening foulness  of  the  blood;  blotches 
symptomatic  of  a  disordered  system. 


24    TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

IO.  FINANCIAL  AGENTS  are  especially  lia- 
ble to  the  temptations  of  Dishonesty.  Safe 
merchants,  and  visionary  schemers;  saga- 
cious adventurers,  and  rash  speculators; 
frugal  beginners,  and  retired  millionaires, 
are  constantly  around  them.  Every  word, 
every  act,  every  entry,  every  letter,  suggests 
only  wealth — its  germ,  its  bud,  its  blossom, 
its  golden  harvest.  Its  brilliance  dazzles  the 
sight ;  its  seductions  stir  the  appetites ;  its 
power  fires  the  ambition,  and  the  soul  con- 
centrates its  energies  to  obtain  wealth,  as 
life's  highest  and  only  joy. 

Besides  the  influence  of  such  associations, 
direct  dealing  in  money  as  a  commodity, 
has  a  peculiar  effect  upon  the  heart. 
There  is  no  property  between  it  and  the 
mind; — no  medium  to  mellow  its  light. 
The  mind  is  diverted  and  refreshed  by  no 
thoughts  upon  the  quality  of  soils ;  the 
durability  of  structures ;  the  advantages 
of  sites ;  the  beauty  of  fabrics  ;  it  is  not 
invigorated  by  the  necessity  of  labor  and 
ingenuity  which  the  mechanic  feels ;  by 
the  invention  of  the  artisan,  or  the  taste 
of  the  artist.  The  whole  attention  falls 
directly  upon  naked  Money.  The  hourly 
sight  of  it  whets  the  appetite,  and  sharpens 
it  to  avarice.  Thus,  with  an  intense  regard 
of  riches,  steals  in  also  the  miser's  relish  of 
coin— rthat  insatiate  gazing  and  fondling, 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY     2<- 

by  which  seductive  metal  wins  to  itself  all 
the  blandishments  of  love. 

Those  who  mean  to  be  rich,  often  begin 
by  imitating  the  expensive  courses  of  those 
who  are  rich.  They  are  also  tempted  to 
venture,  before  they  have  means  of  their 
own,  in  brilliant  speculations.  How  can  a 
young  cashier  pay  the  drafts  of  his  illicit 
pleasures,  or  procure  the  seed,  for  the 
harvest  of  speculation,  out  of  his  narrow 
salary  ?  Here  first  begins  to  work  the 
leaven  of  death.  The  mind  wanders  in 
dreams  of  gain ;  it  broods  over  projects 
of  unlawful  riches ;  stealthily  at  first,  and 
then  with  less  reserve ;  at  last  it  boldly 
meditates  the  possibility  of  being  dishonest 
and  safe.  When  a  man  can  seriously 
reflect  upon  dishonesty  as  a  possible  and 
profitable  thing,  he  is  already  deeply  dis- 
honest. To  a  mind  so  tainted,  will  flock 
stories  of  consummate  craft,  of  effective 
knavery,  of  fraud  covered  by  its  brilliant 
success.  At  times,  the  mind  shrinks  from 
its  own  thoughts,  and  trembles  to  look  down 
the  giddy  cliff  on  whose  edge  they  poise, 
or  over  which  they  fling  themselves  like 
sporting  sea-birds.  But  these  imaginations 
will  not  be  driven  from  the  heart  where 
they  have  once  nested.  They  haunt  a 
man's  business,  visit  him  in  dreams,  and 
vampire-like,  fan  the  slumbers  of  the  victim 


26     TWEL  VE  CA  USES  OF  DISHONES7  Y 

whom  they  will  destroy.  In  some  feverish 
hour,  vibrating  between  conscience  and 
avarice,  the  man  staggers  to  a  compromise. 
To  satisfy  his  conscience  he  refuses  to 
steal ;  and  to  gratify  his  avarice,  he  borrows 
the  funds  ; — not  openly — not  of  owners — 
not  of  men :  but  of  the  ti.ll — the  safe — the 
vault ! 

He  resolves  to  restore  the  money  before 
discovery  can  ensue,  and  pocket  the  profits. 
Meanwhile,  false  entries  are  made,  perjured 
oaths  are  sworn,  forged  papers  are  filed. 
His  expenses  grow  profuse,  and  men 
wonder  from  what  fountain  so  copious  a 
stream  can  flow. 

Let  us  stop  here  to  survey  his  condition. 
He  flourishes,  is  called  prosperous,  thinks 
himself  safe.  Is  he  safe,  or  honest?  He 
has  stolen,  and  embarked  the  amount  upon 
a  sea  over  which  wander  perpetual  storms; 
where  wreck  is  the  common  fate,  and  escape 
the  accident ;  and  now  all  his  chance  for 
the  semblance  of  honesty,  is  staked  upon 
the  return  of  his  embezzlements  from 
among  the  sands,  the  rocks  and  currents, 
the  winds  and  waves,  and  darkness,  of 
tumultuous  speculation.  At  length  dawns 
the  day  of  discovery.  His  guilty  dreams 
have  long  foretokened  it.  As  he  confronts 
the  disgrace  almost  face  to  face,  how 
changed  is  the  hideous  aspect  of  his  deed, 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY    2j 

from  that  fair  face  of  promise  with  which  it 
tempted  him  !  Conscience,  and  honor,  and 
plain  honesty,  which  left  him  when  they 
could  not  restrain,  now  come  back  to 
sharpen  his  anguish.  Overawed  by  the 
prospect  of  open  shame,  of  his  wife's  dis- 
grace, and  his  children's  beggary,  he  cows 
down,  and  slinks  out  of  life  a  frantic  suicide. 
Some  there  be,  however,  less  supple  to 
shame.  They  meet  their  fate  with  cool 
impudence;  defy  their  employers;  brave 
the  court,  and  too  often  with  success.  The 
delusion  of  the  public  mind,  or  the  con- 
fusion of  affairs  is  such,  that,  while  petty 
culprits  are  tumbled  into  prison,  a  cool, 
calculating  and  immense  scoundrel  is  pitied, 
dandled  and  nursed  by  a  sympathizing 
community.  In  the  broad  road  slanting  to 
the  rogue's  retreat,  are  seen  the  officer 
of  the  bank,  the  agent  of  the  state,  the 
officer  of  the  church,  in  indiscriminate 
haste,  outrunning  a  lazy  justice,  and  bear- 
ing off  the  gains  of  astounding  frauds. 
Avarice  and  pleasure  seem  to  have  dis- 
solved the  conscience.  //  is  a  day  of  trouble 
and  of  perplexity  from  the  Lord.  We  trem- 
ble to  think  that  our  children  must  leave 
the  covert  of  the  family,  and  go  out  upon 
that  dark  and  yeasty  sea,  from  whose  wrath 
so  many  wrecks  are  cast  up  at  our  feet. 
Of  one  thing  I  am  certain ;  if  the  church  of 


28    TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

Christ  is  silent  to  such  deeds,  and  makes  her 
altar  a  refuge  to  such  dishonesty,  the  day 
is  coming  when  she  shall  have  no  altar,  the 
light  shall  go  out  from  her  candlestick,  her 
walls  shall  be  desolate,  and  the  fox  look 
out  at  her  windows. 

ii.  EXECUTIVE  CLEMENCY,  by  its  fre- 
quency, has  been  a  temptation  to  Dishon- 
esty. Who  will  fear  to  be  a  culprit  when  a 
legal  sentence  is  the  argument  of  pity,  and 
the  prelude  of  pardon  ?  What  can  the 
community  expect  but  growing  dishonesty, 
when  juries  connive  at  acquittals,  and  judges 
condemn  only  to  petition  a  pardon ;  when 
honest  men  and  officers  fly  before  a  mob  ; 
when  jails  are  besieged  and  threatened,  if 
felons  are  not  relinquished  ;  when  the  Exec- 
utive, consulting  the  spirit  of  the  commu- 
nity, receives  the  demands  of  the  mob,  and 
humbly  complies,  throwing  down  the  fences 
of  the  law,  that  base  rioters  may  walk 
unimpeded,  to  their  work  of  vengeance,  or 
unjust  mercy  ?  A  sickly  sentimentality  too 
often  enervates  the  administration  of  justice  ; 
and  the  pardoning  power  becomes  the 
master-key  to  let  out  unwashed,  unrepent- 
ant criminals.  They  have  fleeced  us,  robbed 
us,  and  are  ulcerous  sores  to  the  body 
politic ;  yet  our  heart  turns  to  water  over 
their  merited  punishment.  A  fine  young 
fellow,  by  accident,  writes  another's  name 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY   2O/ 

for  his  own  ;  by  a  mistake  equally  unfortu- 
nate, he  presents  it  at  the  bank;  innocently 
draws  out  the  large  amount ;  generously 
spends  a  part,  and  absent-mindedly  hides 
the  rest.  Hard-hearted  wretches  there  are, 
who  would  punish  him  for  this !  Young 
men,  admiring  the  neatness  of  the  affair, 
pity  his  misfortune,  and  curse  a  stupid 
jury  that  knew  no  better  than  to  send  to  a 
penitentiary,  him,  whose  skill  deserved  a 
cashiership.  He  goes  to  his  cell,  the  pity 
of  a  whole  metropolis.  Bulletins  from 
Sing-Sing  inform  us  daily  what  Edwards  * 
is  doing,  as  if  he  were  Napoleon  at  St. 
Helena.  At  length  pardoned,  he  will  go 
forth  again  to  a  renowned  liberty ! 

If  there  be  oneway  quicker  than  another, 
by  which  the  Executive  shall  assist  crime, 
and  our  laws  foster  it,  it  is  that  course 
which  assures  every  dishonest  man,  that  it 
is  easy  to  defraud,  easy  to  avoid  arrest,  easy 
to  escape  punishment,  and  easiest  of  all  to 
obtain  a  pardon. 

12.  COMMERCIAL  SPECULATIONS  are  pro- 
lific of  Dishonesty.  Speculation  is  the  risk- 
ing of  capital  in  enterprises  greater  than  we 
can  control,  or  in  enterprises  whose  elements 
are  not  at  all  calculable.  All  calculations 
of  the  future  are  uncertain  ;  but  those  which 
are  based  upon  long  experience  approximate 

[*  Monroe  Edwards,  a  notorious  forger. — ED.] 


3Q     TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

certainty,  while  those  which  are  drawn  by 
sagacity  from  probable  events,  are  notori- 
ously unsafe.  Unless,  however,  some 
venture,  we  shall  forever  tread  an  old  and 
dull  path  ;  therefore  enterprise  is  allowed  to 
pioneer  new  ways.  The  safe  enterpriser 
explores  cautiously,  ventures  at  first  a  little, 
and  increases  the  venture  with  the  ratio  of 
experience.  A  speculator  looks  out  upon 
the  new  region,  as  upon  a  far-away  land- 
scape, whose  features  are  softened  to 
beauty  by  distance  ;  upon  a  hope,  he  stakes 
that,  which,  if  it  wins,  will  make  him ;  and 
if  it  loses,  will  ruin  him.  When  the  alter- 
natives are  victory,  or  utter  destruction,  a 
battle  may,  sometimes,  still  be  necessary. 
But  commerce  has  no  such  alternatives ; 
only  speculation  proceeds  upon  them. 

If  the  capital  is  borrowed,  it  is  as  dis- 
honest, upon  such  ventures,  to  risk,  as  to 
lose  it.  Should  a  man  borrow  a  noble 
steed  and  ride  among  incitements  which  he 
knew  would  rouse  up  his  fiery  spirit  to  an 
uncontrollable  height,  and  borne  away  with 
wild  speed,  be  plunged  over  a  precipice, 
his  destruction  might  excite  our  pity,  but 
could  not  alter  our  opinion  of  his  dishon- 
esty. He  borrowed  property,  and  endan- 
gered it  where  he  knew  that  it  would  be 
uncontrollable. 

If  the  capital  be  one's  own,  it  can  scarce- 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY     ^ 

ly  be  risked  and  lost,  without  the  ruin  of 
other  men.  No  man  could  blow  up  his 
store  in  a  compact  street,  and  destroy  only 
his  own.  Men  of  business  are,  like  threads 
of  a  fabric,  woven  together,  and  subject, 
to  a  great  extent,  to  a  common  fate  of 
prosperity  or  adversity.  I  have  no  right 
to  cut  off  my  hand  ;  I  defraud  myself,  my 
family,  the  community,  and  God ;  for  all 
these  have  an  interest  in  that  hand.  Nei- 
ther has  a  man  the  right  to  throw  away  his 
property.  He  defrauds  himself,  his  family, 
the  community  in  which  he  dwells  ;  for  all 
these  have  an  interest  in  that  property.  If 
waste  is  dishonesty,  then  every  risk,  in  pro- 
portion as  it  approaches  it,  is  dishonest. 
To  venture,  without  that  foresight  which 
experience  gives,  is  wrong ;  and  if  we  can- 
not foresee,  then  we  must  not  venture. 

Scheming  speculation  demoralizes  hon- 
esty, and  almost  necessitates  dishonesty. 
He  who  puts  his  own  interests  to  rash 
ventures,  will  scarcely  do  better  for  others. 
The  Speculator  regards  the  weightiest  affair 
as  only  a  splendid  game.  Indeed,  a  Specu- 
lator on  the  exchange,  and  a  Gambler  at 
his  table,  follow  one  vocation,  only  with 
different  instruments.  One  employs  cards 
or  dice,  the  other  property.  The  one  can 
no  more  foresee  the  result  of  his  schemes, 
than  the  other  what  spots  will  come  up  on 


32     TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

his  dice ;  the  calculations  of  both  are  only 
the  chances  of  luck.  Both  burn  with  un- 
healthy excitement ;  both  are  avaricious  of 
gains,  but  careless  of  what  they  win  ;  both 
depend  more  upon  fortune  than  skill  ;  they 
have  a  common  distaste  for  labor  ;  with  each, 
right  and  wrong  are  only  the  accidents  of  a 
game  ;  neither  would  scruple  in  any  hour  to 
set  his  whole  being  on  the  edge  of  ruin, 
and  going  over,  to  pull  down,  if  possible,  a 
hundred  others. 

The  wreck  of  such  men  leaves  them  with 
a  drunkard's  appetite,  and  a  fiend's  desper- 
ation. The  revulsion  from  extravagant 
hopes,  to  a  certainty  of  midnight  darkness ; 
the  sensations  of  poverty,  to  him  who  was 
in  fancy  just  stepping  upon  a  princely  estate  ; 
the  humiliation  of  gleaning  for  cents,  where 
he  has  been  profuse  of  dollars ;  the  chagrin 
of  seeing  old  competitors  now  above  him, 
grinning  down  upon  his  poverty  a  malignant 
triumph  ;  the  pity  of  pitiful  men,  and  the 
neglect  of  such  as  should  have  been  his 
friends, — and  who  were,  while  the  sunshine 
lay  upon  his  path, — all  these  things,  like  so 
many  strong  winds,  sweep  across  the  soul 
so  that  it  cannot  rest  in  the  cheerless  tran- 
quility  of  honesty,  but  casts  tip  mire  and 
dirt.  How  stately  the  balloon  rises  and 
sails  over  continents,  as  over  petty  land- 
scapes !  The  slightest  slit  in  its  frail  cover- 


TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 


33 


ing  sends  it  tumbling  down,  swaying  widely, 
whirling  and  pitching  hither  and  thither, 
until  it  plunges  into  some  dark  glen,  out  of 
the  path  of  honest  men,  and  too  shattered 
to  tempt  even  a  robber.  So  have  we  seen 
a  thousand  men  pitched  down  ;  so  now,  in 
a  thousand  places  may  their  wrecks  be  seen. 
But  still  other  balloons  are  framing,  and  the 
air  is  full  of  victim-venturers. 

If  our  young  men  are  introduced  to  life 
with  distaste  for  safe  ways,  because  the  sure 
profits  are  slow ;  if  the  opinion  becomes 
prevalent  that  all  business  is  great,  only  as 
it  tends  to  the  uncertain,  the  extravagant, 
and  the  romantic ;  then  we  may  stay  our 
hand  at  once,  nor  waste  labor  in  absurd  ex- 
postulations of  honesty.  I  had  as  lief  preach 
humanity  to  a  battle  of  eagles,  as  to  urge 
honesty  and  integrity  upon  those  who  have 
determined  to  be  rich,  and  to  gain  it  by  gam- 
bling stakes,  and  madmen's  ventures. 

All  the  bankruptcies  of  commerce  are 
harmless  compared  with  a  bankruptcy  of 
public  morals.  Should  the  Atlantic  ocean 
break  over  our  shores,  and  roll  sheer  across 
to  the  Pacific,  sweeping  every  vestige  of 
cultivation,  and  burying  our  wealth,  it  would 
be  a  mercy,  compared  to  that  ocean-deluge 
of  dishonesty  and  crime,  which,  sweeping 
over  the  whole  land,  has  spared  our  wealth 
and  taken  our  virtue.  What  are  cornfields 


34     TWELVE  CAUSES  OF  DISHONESTY 

and  vineyards,  what  are  stores  and  manu- 
factures, and  what  are  gold  and  silver,  and 
all  the  precious  commodities  of  the  earth, 
among  beasts  ? — and  what  are  men,  bereft 
of  conscience  and  honor,  but  beasts  ? 

We  will  forget  those  things  which  are 
behind,  and  hope  a  more  cheerful  future. 
We  turn  to  you,  YOUNG  MEN  ! — All  good 
men,  all  patriots,  turn  to  watch  your  ad- 
vance upon  the  stage,  and  to  implore  you 
to  be  worthy  of  yourselves,  and  of  your  re- 
vered ancestry.  Oh  !  ye  favored  of  Heaven  ! 
with  a  free  land,  a  noble  inheritance  of  wise 
laws,  and  a  prodigality  of  wealth  in  pros- 
pect,— advance  to  your  possessions  ! — May 
you  settle  down,  as  did  Israel  of  old,  a  peo- 
ple of  God  in  a  promised  and  protected 
land  ; — true  to  yourselves,  true  to  your  coun- 
try, and  true  to  your  God. 


ALTEMUS' 
BELLES-LETTRES  SERIES. 

A  collection  of  Essays  and  Addresses  by  eminent  English 
and  American  Authors,  beautifully  printed  and  daintily 
bound  in  leatherette,  with  original  designs  in  silver. 


PRICE,  25  CENTS  PER  VOLUME. 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY,  by  Rev.  Edward  E.  Hale. 

THE  SCHOLAR  IN  POLITICS,  by  Hon.  Richard 
Olney. 

THE  YOUNG  MAN  IN  BUSINESS,  by  Edward  W. 
Bok. 

THE  YOUNG  MAN  AND  THE  CHURCH,  by  Edward 
W.  Bok. 

THE  SPOILS  SYSTEM,  by  Hon.  Carl  Schurz. 

CONVERSATION,  by  Thomas  De  Quincey. 

SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT,  by  Matthew  Arnold. 

WORK,  by  John  Ruskin. 

NATURE  AND  ART,  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

THE  USE  AND  MISUSE  OF  BOOKS,  by  Frederic 
Harrison. 

THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE:  ITS  ORIGIN,  MEAN- 
ING AND  APPLICATION,  by  Prof.  John  Bach 
McMaster  (University  of  Pennsylvania). 

THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN,  by  Sir  John  Lubbock. 

LOVE  AND  FRIENDSHIP,  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

RIP  VAN  WINKLE,  by  Washington  Irving. 

ART,  POETRY  AND  MUSIC,  by  Sir  John  Lubbock. 

THE  CHOICE  OF  BOOKS,  by  Sir  John  Lubbock. 

MANNERS,  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

CHARACTER,  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

THE  LEGEND  OF  SLEEPY  HOLLOW,  by  Wash- 
ington Irving-. 

THE  BEAUTIES  OF  NATURE,  by  Sir  John  Lubbock. 

SELF  RELIANCE,  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

THE  DUTY  OF  HAPPINESS,  by  Sir  John  Lubbock. 

SPIRITUAL  LAWS,  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

OLD  CHRISTMAS,  by  Washington  Irving. 

HEALTH,  \VEALTH  AND  THE  BLESSING  OF 
FRIENDS,  by  Sir  John  Lubbock. 

INTELLECT,  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

WHY  AMERICANS  DISLIKE  ENGLAND,  by  Prof. 
Geo.  B.  Adams  (Yale). 

THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION  AS  A  TRAINING  FOR 
BUSINESS,  by  Prof.  Harry  Pratt  Judson  (University 
of  Chicago). 

MISS  TOOSEY'S  MISSION. 

LADDIE. 

J.  COLE,  by  Emma  Gellibrand. 


HENRY  ALTEMUS, 
507,  509,  57 1,  573  Cherry  Street,  Philadelphia. 


UC SOUTHERN 


ul"'"  iij  _ 


